THE NATURE OF 1-IRT.=TAN MYTTIvI TN THE THOUGHT OF BARON -VON HUGEL AND GEORGE TYRRELL JOHN BERRY SUBMITTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Ph.D THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS DEPARTMENT OF THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES JANUARY 1989 This thesis seeks to establish the place of Baron von aigel and George Tyrrell in the revival of interest in mysticism at the beginning of the present century. Though leading figures in the modernist movement in the Roman Catholic Church, their collaboration on the subject of mysticism was central to their friendship and work. They helped to retrieve the central concerns of mystical theology after a retreat from mysticism which had affected the Church since the condemnation of Quietism in 1699. Their account of Christian mysticism, which involved a critique of Buddhism, neo-Platonism and pantheism, rested on a world- affirming attitude to creation, a balance between divine transcendence and immanence and the articulation of a legitimate panentleism. It also involved a positive acceptance of the bodily-spiritual unity of human nature and ordinary experience as the locus of mystical encounter with God. Their account also emphasised the reality of direct contact between God and the individual, and the affective and cognitive dimensions of mystical experience. They asserted the centrality of mystical union as a dynamic communion of life, love and action which is the primary goal of the Christian life. They emphasised the necessity of contemplation, understood not as passive inaction, but as a profound energising of the soul. Asceticism, the embracing of suffering, self-discipline and a right ordering of human affection, was also judged indispensable. Moreover, they believed that only in the context of the intellectual and institutional elements of religion, does mysticism find its true theological locus in Christian life and reflection. Their comprehensive definition of mysticism opened up the possibility of understanding both the uniqueness of Christian mysticism, and the reality and value of non- Christian forms of mystical experience as genuine encounters with the divine. Accepting a universal call to mysticism, they held the mystical way to be the way to full humanity which is also the individual's realisation of divinity. CONTENTS Pages INTRODUCTION 1 Modernist Research and Mystical Theology 1 CHAPTER ONE: MYSTICISM AND MODERNISM: VON HUGEL AND TYRRELL AND THE MYSTICAL REVIVAL 7 The Twentieth Century revival of mysticism 7 Von HUgel and Tyrrell and the mystical revival 18 Scholasticism and mystical renewal 31 Tyrrell and Jesuit mysticism 43 CHAPTER TWO: THE VON HUGEL-TYRRELL FRIENDSHIP AND THEIR COLLABORATION ON THE SUBJECT OF MYSTICISM 54 A shared interest in mysticism 54 Tyrrell% contribution to The Mystical Element of Religion 64 CHAPTER THREE: THE CRITIQUE OF NON-CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM 88 Buddhism 89 Neo-Platonism 101 Pantheism 117 CHAPTER FOUR: THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM 128 Transcendence and Immanence 128 Human experience and the 'Sense of the Infinite' 148 CHAPTER FIVE: MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE AND UNION WITH GOD 169 The doctrine of the 'Spiritual Senses' 169 The mystical union of the soul with God 191 CHAPTER SIX: PRAYER AND MYSTICISM 217 Von Hugel on the theology and practice of prayer 217 Tyrrell's reflections on the Lord's Prayer 227 Von Hiigel's discussion of Quietism and contemplation 238 Tyrrell on contemplation and action 251 The significance of ecstasy 261 CHAPTER SEVEN: ASCETICISM AND MYSTICISM 267 The theological principles of Christian asceticism 267 Asceticism and human love: marriage and celibacy 288 CHAPTER EIGHT: THE NATURE OF CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM 302 The three elements of religion 303 Inclusive and exclusive mysticism 318 Towards a definition of mysticism 326 A universal call to mysticism? 335 CONCLUSION 349 Abbreviations 359 361 Notes 432 Bibliography INTRODUCTION MODERNIST RESEARCH AND MYSTICAL THEOLOGY Research on the subject of modernism has become such a 'growth industry' that even ten years ago it had reached the stage of 'bibliographies of bibliographies' and 'research about modernist research'All It is possible to speak of a 'renaissance in Roman Catholic Modernist studies' since interest in the modernist movement at the beginning of the twentieth century is reflected in numerous studies of the questions raised by continental thinkers such as Loisy, Laberthonniere, Le Roy, Duchesne, Blondel, Minocchi, and Buonaiuti. Attention has also focused on its historical connection with Liberal Catholicism and liberalising tendencies of later decades. The very range and complexity of the issues justifies Lash's description of the 'Modernist minefield'. In 1964 Alexander Dru criticised Martin Clark's claim that the contribution of modernism to theology had been largely lostA2] Dru maintained that modernism manifested the vitality of Catholicism at the time and he lamented the lack of an adequate history of modernism which acknowledged the 'wholesale transformation of thought' and the eventual 'revival which followed it.' Aubert described recent publications on modernism, stressing the interest in von HUgel and the nature of the repression sanctioned by the condemnationn] In 1970 Vidler returned to the subject he had treated in his major study in 1934 where he had been mainly concerned with Loisy and TyrrellA4] His description of modernism as a disparate phenomenon synthesised by Pius X, has been accepted by many scholars before and since. The later study was 2 concerned with the limited nature of modernism in England and 'lesser lights', such as the 'unrecognised modernist' Edmund Bishop. More recently, John Kent surveyed the shifting perspectives in modernist studies, faulting Schoenl and Ranchetti for claiming Pius X to be the 'uncriticizable defender of the faith' though they regretted the repression and its consequences for Liberal Catholicism15] Kent claimed the case for Pius X was less easy to defend once Poulat had shown the Pope's personal involvement in Mgr Benigni's rigorous enforcement of integralismA6] New ground was broken in modernist research by DaWs Transcendence and Immanence, rightly described as the 'best theological study of Modernism', not only for clarifying the term modermisml but for identifying the intellectual climate within which not only modernism but other contemporary movements can be better understood. Daly welcomed the emergence of theologians prepared to concede the 'theological importance of what the modernists were saying. '[71 Denying any substantial distinction between modernism and Liberal Catholicism, he questioned the accepted terminology and its clear application in terms of orthodoxy or heterodoxy, seeking rather to examine in detail what each modernist actually wrote. When this is undertaken it becomes clear that Blondel, for example, combined an interest in mysticism and a profound commitment to intellectual renewal in the area of philosophy, with sharp criticism of modernism. Bremond was devoted to the mystical tradition yet sympathetic to Tyrrell's critique of Church authority. Abbot Butler avoided scriptural, philosophical and theological areas of study, prepared to 'fall back on mysticism and pietismA8] This focus on the specific writings of individuals is particularly important in the case of von 3 aigel and Tyrrell who felt that mysticism presented the most effective means to theological renewal. Their works have been studied anew from a variety of perspectives and since Vatican II some have suggested that their writings anticipated emphases now accepted by ecclesiastical authority, including beliefs once rejected under the condemnatory rubric 'compendium of all heresies', Though the appeal to the 'spirit of the Council' in support of hitherto heterodox positions is often less than convincing, Reardon has claimed that it was not so much 'Newman's Council', as some have suggested, but the Council which 'the Modernists, other than the most extreme, would gladly have welcomed if they had lived to see it[9] Thomas Loome, above all, has presented invaluable documentation and an impressive overview of the whole modernist question. Though criticised by Kent as 'the most rigorous attempt to release Liberal Catholicism from the embrace of Modernism', Loome's work has helped broaden the perspectives within which modernism must be understood and we have found many of his Judgments accurate and persuasiveA10] The major criticism of him centres on the claimed originality of his 'new orientation in modernist research', and his aggressive rejection of conclusions which differ from his ownAll] His view of von Eigel as a modernist sui Eeneris has been seen by some as a misguided attempt to free the Baron from the charge of heterodoxy. But Loome's contribution to modernist research is inestimable, a point of reference for all subsequent discussion. Characteristically, his criticism of Poulat and Rivière, showed their failure to acknowledge Tyrrell's early use of the term 'modernism' with its general connotation of 'modernity' rather than any specific theological associationsAl2] Tyrrell described himself as 4 a Liberal Catholic and the term modernism often implied simply an attitude of openness to modern thought and culture. These studies and many others have been used in various degrees as necessary background to the present thesis. Though this is not a study of modernism, the modernist crisis remains the historical background and theological context for examining the place of von aigel and Tyrrell in the revival